POSITION PAPER AYIMUN

Country : Republic of Austria

Committe : The International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL)

Name : Bili Ramdani

Topic Area: #OnlineCriminalRealCrimes

Most of us take care to protect ourselves from physical crimes in the ‘real’ world,
yet we do not always take the same precautions against virtual crimes in the online
world.
While crimes like burglary and assault are something we can see, cybercrime is
largely invisible, leading many people to underestimate its very real damage – or the
likelihood of becoming a victim. But the effects of cybercrime can be just as
devastating as physical crimes, with a number of potential dangers hidden online.
As well, victims of cybercrime do not always realize they should report these crimes
to police in the same way they would if, for example, their home was robbed, since
they do not actually witness the theft or the culprit.
Through a new public awareness campaign launched today, INTERPOL is sending
the message that #OnlineCrimeIsRealCrime and should be regarded with the same
seriousness as any other type of crime.

The campaign will inform the public on the top cyberthreats and how to spot them,
and provide general cybersecurity advice to help minimize the risk of becoming a
victim.
Each of the next six weeks will be dedicated to a particular online crime theme, using
INTERPOL’s social media channels to share the key messages via posts, graphics
and videos. The following online crimes, which have been identified as the key
global threats, will be covered:
 Phising;
 Ransomware;
 Sextortion;
 Cryptojacking;
 Business email compromise (BEC) fraud;
 Online Crimes againts children.
General cyber hygiene tips will be incorporated throughout the campaign,
offering simple, practical advice for protecting yourself, devices and online
accounts against cybercriminals.

Like a new documentary about our digital lives. Directed by Jeff Orlowski about
Social Dilemma Film The Social Dilemma explores the effect of smartphones and
social networks on human behavior. Blending talking-head interviews with some
well known Silicon Valley apostates and fictional, after-school special-style
dramatizations of what happens when Johnny and Janey scroll through feeds all day,
the film presents itself as an urgent warning about our modern condition.

I’m more than a little sympathetic to these concerns. I started writing this newsletter
in 2017 after coming to the belated realization that social networks really did have
an outsized impact on modern life, and deserved to be taken as seriously. My
thinking has benefited tremendously from speaking over the years with some of the
interview subjects in the film, including Tristan Harris, Renee DiResta, Tim Kendall,
Jeff Seibert, and Justin Rosenstein. In particular, Harris’ work on screen time
triggered a powerful sea change in the industry, and DiResta’s explorations of
misinformation have been essential to helping social networks understand
themselves.
And yet despite all that ... the film is ridiculous? The dramatized segments include a
fictional trio of sociopaths working inside an unnamed social network to design
bespoke push notifications to distract their users. They show an anguished family
struggling to get the children to put their phones away during dinner. And the
ominous piano score that pervades every scene, rather than ratcheting up the tension,
gives it all the feeling of camp. If someone asked me to reimagine this newsletter as
a drag show, I would start where The Social Dilemma leaves off.

And as Adi Robertson points out at The Verge, the idea that algorithmic
recommendation engines are at the heart of our troubles leaves out vast swathes of
the internet that are arguably just as important as the big social networks, and perhaps
in some cases even more so. She writes:

Propaganda, bullying, and misinformation are actually far bigger and more
complicated. The film briefly mentions, for instance, that Facebook-owned
WhatsApp has spread misinformation that inspired grotesque lynchings in India.
The film doesn’t mention, however, that WhatsApp works almost nothing like
Facebook. It’s a highly private, encrypted messaging service with no algorithmic
interference, and it’s still fertile ground for false narratives. As Alexis Madrigal
notes, condemning the platforms together comes “uncomfortably close to admitting
that mobile communications pose fundamental challenges to societies across the
world.” There’s a fair case for that, he argues — but a case with much more alarming
implications.

Radicalization doesn’t just happen on Facebook and YouTube either. Many of the
deadliest far-right killers were apparently incubated on small forums: Christchurch
mosque killer Brenton Tarrant on 8chan; Oregon mass shooter Chris Harper-Mercer
on 4chan; Tree of Life Synagogue killer Robert Bowers on Gab; and Norwegian
terrorist Anders Breivik on white supremacist sites including Stormfront, a 23-year-
old hate site credited with inspiring scores of murders.

These sites aren’t primarily driven by algorithms or profit motives. Instead, they
twist and exploit the open internet’s positive ability to connect like-minded people.
When harmful content surfaces on them, it raises complex moderation questions for
domain hosts and web infrastructure providers — a separate set of powerful
companies that have completely different business models from Facebook.

This isn’t to let social networks off the hook. Nor is it an effort to make the problem
feel so complicated that everyone just throws their hands up and walks away from
it. But I’m shocked at how appealing so many people find the idea that social
networks are uniquely responsible for all of society’s ills.

Upon the settlement of the issue, Austria would like to press All Countries to be
patient with all online crimes, expecially with magic these days that is imperceptible
but very dangerous. To further increase the support, The Delegation of Austria
would like to engage in interaction and communication with other countries in the
Europa region, supporting the possible solutions proposed by the Delegation of
Austria, in order helping many people to keep everyone from todays online crimes.